The Department of Communication, Media and Film and the University of Calgary Film Society Present

cinema travellers

Wednesday, September 27th at 7:00pm

at The Gallery Hall (across from the Nickle Galleries) in Taylor Family Digital Library, University of Calgary.

About the Film:

Showmen riding cinema lorries have brought the wonder of the movies to faraway villages in India once every year. Seven decades on, as their cinema projectors crumble and film reels become scarce, their patrons are lured by slick digital technology. A benevolent showman, a shrewd exhibitor and a maverick projector mechanic bear a beautiful burden – to keep the last traveling cinemas of the world running.

A film by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya.

30 minutes Q&A via Skype with Amit to follow the screening.

Press Reviews:
“Whatever masterpieces, if any, bow at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it is likely none will communicate the excitement engendered by movies more headily than The Cinema Travellers.” – Graham Fuller, Screen Guardian.

“The most involving films on film history included […] “The Cinema Travellers,” which follows exhibitors who show films in fairground tents in the remotest parts of India.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times.

“Although The Cinema Travelers simply could have been a sad chronicling of the struggles of a once-vibrant industry in its final throws, its triumph lies in how it also captures the magic of this unique, collective movie-watching experience.” – Alex Ritman, The Hollywood Reporter.

“A wise and wistful documentary that puts things in perspective by inviting viewers not to think of new ripples in the landscape (e.g. Netflix and VOD) as signs of decay, but rather as the symptoms of a form that’s simply shedding its skin.” – David Ehrlich, Indie Wire.

“An evocative, subtle and heartfelt snapshot, it also refrains from sentimentality. For all the fondness for the old, there’s equal thrill of the new.” – Benjamin Lee, The Guardian.